Perfume

I am not known for being a maven of style and trendiness but I think I have a lock on some trends. Okay, I know that some people feel the need to wear scents, aromas, odors ect... but good God almighty, why bathe in the stuff. It would be one thing if it were 17th century France and we needed to mask our lack of bathing stink and chamber pot odors, but we live in a time where people bathe regularly and we have flushing toilets. Sure the toilets sometimes smell like ass, but the ass stench is typically limited to the confines of the restroom area.

"Restroom," what an odd word. Who is resting in there? and why? "Bathroom" makes more sense because, at least in the house, it is often associated with a commode. If we go all British and call it the "Lavatory" it is basically the equivalent of washroom from the French verb "laver" meaning "to wash." "Water Closet" makes sense to a point as well. I personally like to think that the bathroom/restroom/ water closet/ lavatory/ whatever should be called the "defecation room" or something else like that. Who are we kidding. Everybody poops, everybody pees, everybody generates waste products of some form or another, let's just call that room what it is, "the pooper", "the crapper", "the Reliefroom" if you need.

Anyway.... Where was I, oh yes, perfume... There are a couple of people here at my work that must have showered in fragrance (and cheap fragrance at that) before they left their respective abodes in the morning. The vaporous cloud of odor emanating form these people is absolutely stunning. I was walking about 10 feet behind one woman at my office and nearly fell over, succumbing to the fumes. I am fairly sure if I were not in a well ventilated area at the time, I would not be posting right now due to lack of oxygen to my brain. Everyone out there should know that it is not necessary to be able to smell your fragrance from 20 feet away. Ever. I should not see perfume wafting off of someone. If one can see your perfume, you are wearing too much. It is a simple rule of thumb.

Oh well, I guess my ranting has run its course for the day.

Good Lord! it is gorgeous outside, the 'rents redux, and "whar you from?"

My, my, my, it is an absolutely gorgeous day outside. Nary a cloud to be seen and the temps ranging about the low 70's. Abso-frikkin-lutely beautiful!!! Too bad it is Wednesday and we are all working.

The parental units will be in town tonight for dinner. We are hoping that they will pay, but that is not a given. They will also be bringing along the nephews. They always bring the nephews. The nephews are good kids, they are just neglected which can make them difficult to be around. On a good note, my parents actually want to spend time with my bro's boys, so that is a good thing. My parents need the attention and the boys need attention as well. The big problem is that the US Men's National Soccer team is playing Guatemala tonight in Birmingham, Alabama for a World Cup Qualifier. I will most likely not be able to watch the game due to family pressures. Stupid Family.

Many people here have asked me, since I hail from the greater metropolitan region of the booming megapolis known as the "Magic City," or Birmingham "Why the Hell are they playing in Birmingham, Alabama?!!?!?" My answer is "Home field advantage." There are not going to be a gigantic contingent of Guatemalan fans making the trek to Legion Field. Legion Field is in a not-so-great-neighborhood in a not-so-great-city in a not-so-great-state. To top it all off the city is full of raging redneck racists. I can see it now.... (mainly because I have actually seen it)

"We 'Mercans don't like you ferners coming an takin our jobs. Whar you from anyway... Mexicali?" Racial epithets to be followed closely by over-used and probably mis-appropriated stereotypes as well as racial slurs that may or may not be associated with Guatemalans. It is a beautiful place.

Odd behavior and too much bathroom info

Okay, 3 things to cover today. The first 2 have to do with my youngun, and the second 2 have to do with bathrooms. Ooh, notice the transitional overlap. So without further ado....

Number 1: My little boy has some just pain odd behaviors. One of which he exhibited for the first time last night. We were getting ready for the bed-time ritual when we noticed the big man over by our loveseat in the living room. He was mouthing the loveseat, but since it is covered in gen-u-wine pleather, we figured, what harm could come. Well, less than a minute later my boy is chewing on a piece of gen-u-wine Corinthian pleather. So, this behavior had to come to an end, so I told the little one in not too harsh tones something to the effect of, "Sweety, you can't chew on the sofa. It is not safe for little guys like yourself, and it will hurt the sofa." You could have sworn that I broke the kid's heart. He just started screwing up his face and getting a bit teary eyed, and then the waterworks really started. He was bawling. He really wanted.... nay, needed to chew on the sofa, and big ole mean papa was keeping him from it. To make a long drawn out boring story short and trite, the big man has entered the tantrum period.

Number 2: Men's restrooms are disgusting. My wife sometimes wonders why I ask her to take the boy to the women's restroom to change his diaper. She has never really been in a men's public restroom. She has toured the facilities at my work. She has been in the bathrooms of some of my bachelor friends. Rarely, if ever, has she gone into the very pit of Hell known as the men's public restroom. Ladies, they are absolutely disgusting. For example... I have only been in a few women's restrooms, ever, but the few that I have been into typically do not smell like ass. Generic Men's Restroom A will typically smell like ass.... constantly. I will not go into more details, but just know, if your husband/partner/boyfriend/baby's daddy asks you to change the little one when you are out in public, it is not necessarily that they are un-willing to change a diaper. It might be that they are concerned for the well-being of their offspring. That being said... I realize that offspring preservation may not always be the reasoning, but for me, it usually is. I have no trouble changing a diaper in at home, in the office, or at a family restroom in the mall, but I will under very few circumstances changes the little one's shorts in the cesspool known as a men's public bathroom.

Number 3: I know we have one here at our work, but I am not sure if this exists everywhere. There is one man here that if you are in the restroom we he enters, you need to finish whatever you are doing in 10 seconds or suffer the consequences. And the consequences are dire. The words "explosive," "malodorous," and "disgusting" do not do the man's cacophonous rectal symphony justice. It is a bowel driven train wreck. It is a "Shock and Awe Campaign" of sounds and aromas to assault your senses. Sometimes I do not think he could possibly have "dropped trau" fast enough, because many times the stall door closes and the horror immediately begins. He, and pretty much he alone, keeps our men's restroom consistently smelling like ass.

Bathroom humor, it is always best to end on bathroom humor.

Family Ties

So I got to see pretty much all of the family this weekend. As far as trips to visit "the fam" go, this was not a bad one. My parents (live in Alabama) were up visiting my brother who lives in Cincitucky or Kentuckinatti (either place is acceptable). His kids were also there as well as his current wife. Author's note: Current wife does denote some amount of temporariness. The first wife only lasted for right around 8 years. I am sure there will be some chatting about my brother and his wife at some point in time. Back to current events.... My wife, the little man and myself traveled down to my brother's for the fun events of Easter Sunday '05.

To my immense surprise, it was a fairly enjoyable trip. My brother's incredibly attention starved kids were both very well behaved. The younger of the 2 is the one that is usually a bit uncontrollable, but he seemed to be in fairly good spirits. My parents seemed to be at least partially happy during most of the visit. They both started getting a bit snippy near the end of the visit, but that was it. My brother and his wife were actually fairly connected and engaging. All in all it was a nice visit. I think most of this pleasantness is due to the fact that my parents had only gotten to my brother's house the night before. Less time for them to have devolved into the unhappy people that they typically are. Last time we visited, they had been at my brother's for 4 days already and things were charged up pretty high. Anyway... I always build up these trips to be much worse than they actually turn out to be. Better to be prepared for the worse than expect the best.

All of that being said and all..... Who has a ham without mashed potatoes? That is just plain stunning. No mashed potatoes with my Easter ham?!!?!?!? WHAT?!?!?!? CHEESEY POTATOES INSTEAD?!?!?!? (and we all know how I feel about un-necessary use of cheese)My family has no idea how to have a holiday feast. Both my mom and dad eat like birds and my less than 2 year old ate more than the 11 yr old and 8 year old combined. I was one of the 3 people there who got seconds and the only one who filled my plate a second time. My wife would have gotten seconds if there were mashed potatoes and the ham wasn't dry. I think all of this lack of eating has to do with never having the correct food at the holiday functions.

Case in point: I remember one Thanksgiving that I traveled down to Alabama from college in Kent, Ohio (a 12 hour drive) to only be presented with a "Turkey Loaf" as the main dish at my Thanksgiving meal. My mom thinks that breakfast chops are pork chops. My dad puts sugar on his lettuce only salad. Mom puts peanut butter on her pancakes. Dad puts brown sugar on his plain white rice. etc.... etc.... etc....

My family is not necessarily known for the food. Food is one of the reasons that I love my wife. She and her mom have introduced me to the wonders of actually good food.

No mashed potatoes with my ham. What the Hell.......

Every married couple and new jobs

Correction from yesterday: I had many people come up to me asking me why I did not like Welch's Grape Soda. I did not really make myself clear yesterday, so I feel that I need to clarify a little bit. While Welch's is not my favorite grape soft drink on the market, it is a very good grape soda. It is the most universally available grape soft drink currently on the market, so it is kind of like the Coke or Pepsi of colas. If Crush or Stewart's are not available, I would happily drink Welch's without shedding a tear. It is a good drink. on to today's topic.

Every married couple has a set of dreaded "in-laws." It just so happens that in my marriage, my wife's in-laws are the ones that suck. The day before we got married, my mom asked (and I quote), "I am still going to be the most important woman in your life, Right?" I almost wrecked my car when I stared at her mouth agape and eyes agog. Number 1: what an inappropriate question? and Number 2: If you have to ask, you are not going to be happy with the answer. It didn't help that I was driving on the interstate and it was absolutely pouring. Since we were by ourselves, I answered with the ever sensitive response, "You are the most important woman in this car, at the moment." Aren't I such the kind son?

Anyway... we get the "pleasure" of seeing them this wonderful Easter weekend. I love my parents, but they are rather tiresome to be around. I feel sorry for my brother and his wife, 'cause the 'rents are staying with them for about a week. Oh my goodness-golly-goshness I would be bat-shit crazy if I had to spend a week with those loons. My parents have elevated denial and revisionism to art forms. I swear the sky they see is not the same as the one I see.

On another topic... my wife just accepted a new position at OSU. So her time at the statewide domestic violence coalition is coming to a close. It has been a stressful couple of weeks as she has prepared herself to leave a job she loves, but with the little one's asthma acting up so much, it is in the best interests of our family that she gets a job with less travel.

I am sure that this topic will be quite the discussion point for the weekend with my parents. Oh boy!

Grapico

Not sure if everyone out there in cyberland even knows about the joys that are grape sodas. They really are truly the nectar of the gods. Most do not contain caffeine, but are good none-the-less. Many of you realize that I am quite the supporter for Mt. Dew, but Mt. Dew is not my favorite drink ever. That would be grape soft drinks. At the moment I have a six pack of Grape Crush sitting on my desk at work. There will be significantly less than 6 of these bad boys on my desk by the end of the day. Grape crush is not my favorite grape soda ever, but it is up there. Let me take you through a guided tour of my grape soda loves.

Number 1: Grape Nehi - The first grape soda of my life. It was like coming home. After my first Grape Nehi I was hooked on grape sodas from then on. It is a fairly bitey soft drink with a bit of a salty aftertaste. It causes some fairly robust burps within my delicate gastro-intestinal tract. This soft drink was made popular by the teddy bear wielding radio operator, Radar, from the M*A*S*H movie and TV show.

Number 2: Welch's Grape Soda - Welch's is one of the more easily available grape soft drinks on the market. It is available in most regions, so feel free to give it a try. This a bit more bitey than Nehi, but it has a sweetness to it that Nehi's do not. It also has a strong salty aftertaste, and causes a good bit of burping as well. If there are no specialty grape drinks around, it is a good filler. It is good, but not even remotely the best.

Number 3: Grapico - This beverage was produced by the Buffalo Rock Bottling Company in Birmingham, Alabama. It is therefore the grape soda that I grew up with on the mean streets of Center Point. They were mean I tell you, mean. Anyway.... this grape soda was almost pure sugar. The flavor was almost over shadowed by the vast quantities of sugar. No bite to this drink at all. It was extremely smooth with no aftertaste, but the amounts of sugar associated with it made one's teeth hurt. I do not believe it is produced anymore for mass retail, but I think if one wished to order some, they can still get it from Buffalo Rock.

Number 4: Grape Crush - Crush is more known for their orange flavored soft drink than their grape, but their grape is a really good drink. Like I said, I have a 6-pack sitting on my desk just waiting for me to drink it. It is watching me.... taunting me... but its time will come, oh yes, its time will come.... errrm, uh anyway... This is a fairly smooth drink as well. It has a little bit of a bite to it (more of a nibble than anything else) and a slight salty aftertaste. All in all it is a good and serviceable grape drink. I usually buy this drink over my favorite just because it is priced a bit better than my favorite. The price versus quality makes it a better choice than my favorite. The favorite is meant for special occasions.

Number 5: Stewart's Grape Soda - This is by far my favorite grape soda yet. The picture on the 4-pack carrier illustrates it all. It does not have a grape as it's image, it has a grape popsicle. That's right, they are not even fooling themselves by saying it is grape-flavored. This drink is all about being artificially grape flavored and they are proud of it. You have to love that. I wish they sold them in 6-packs, but alas and alack, they only come in 4 packs or a wide mouthed 24 oz.-er. This drink is the perfect blend of smoothness with bite. The bite actually occurs during the slightly salty aftertaste. The aftertaste is actually is the correct amount of saltiness. It makes you want to drink more. That leaving you wanting more feeling is what makes this a special occasion drink only. I will go through the 4-pack in one sitting.

Anyway... you all have had a scary look deep into my soul and found out is grape flavored.

Sick babysitter

So the people who watch my little one are sick at the moment, and by sick I mean ill, not "smacking penguins with sex toys" sick. So my wife and I are shuffling around our schedules so we can make sure someone is always watching the boy. He is nefarious and conniving, so someone needs to be there at all times to make sure his plans do not come to fruition.

Unfortunately, I have to go to a public involvement meeting tonight. I am surprised that the project manager wants me to go. Usually I go to the first PI meeting associated with a project, and then the project team decides that it is in the project's best interests for me not to be seen in public ever again. My company used to have me sequestered in the basement, so even the clients could not see me when we had internal meetings. Go figure. Anyway.... we have a public involvement meeting tonight where we are unveiling 4 potential alignments for the extension of a parkway. In the corridor area that we have (larger than the alignments) there are about 30 something homes, but contained within these 4 new roadway alignments there are only (I think) 8 individual residences. So there should be significantly fewer people unhappy after this meeting.

I don't want anyone out there to think I am being callous about this new road being built by taking people's homes. Of the 8 homes potentially being taken, 6 were built less than 10 years ago, and of those 6, 2 were finished last month. While I understand that people will be unhappy about having their houses taken, these people are also the major part of the transportation problem occurring in the area. The county in question is one of the top 4 growing counties in the entirety of the US, and is the number 1 top growing county in Ohio. If things stay constant there will be 27,000 more cars traveling through that particular area of the county in question in 20 years time. The same people who are moving into the area causing the infrastructure to be compromised are the one complaining about the construction of this road. They do not want a road to ruin the rural characteristic of the area, but they and people like them (and we all know how I feel about people) who have recently moved into the area and are continuing to move into the area are necessitating the construction of the very facility that they do not want.

I do feel somewhat bad for the other 2 home-owners in the potential alignments. Their residences are at least 80 years old and have been in their families' possession for multiple generations. That being said... they have been selling off their respective family's land to residential developers and individual home builders in the last 15 years, so they too are part of the problem. Progress happens whether we want it to or not. At least it is paying my bills.

So much of my life wasted

So much of my life is wasted watching "progress bars" in computer programs. I swear I have been watching the "blue bar grow" for at least a cumulative 2.5 years of my life. That is 2.5 years that I will never have back, and I already miss it. I am sure it would have been the best 2.5 years of my life.

As I have stated previously, we are having a Public Involvement Meeting for one of our more contested transportation projects at the moment. So, at the moment, there is much cursing and gnashing of teeth. It looks as if we will, again, be able to accomplish all that is necessary for the meeting to happen, even though we have been held to an insanely thin time schedule. Currently I am converting an Adobe Illustrator file into jpeg. I have been doing this since 11:30 this morning. That is another hour I can never get back

Oh well, c'est la vie.

I'm a printing mule today

I guess that makes me a kind of ass. Sure, it is a printing ass, but an ass nonetheless.

I hate working on Sunday's. This is an afternoon that I should be spending with my little one; watching him cavort around the house as if he owns the place. Let's be clear, he does not own the place. My wife and I own the place. We pay the mortgage, we keep up on all the bills, etc... He just runs the place.

So today, I am in the office printing shit-loads of handouts for a public involvement meeting occurring this Tuesday. Who-weeee, do I have a fun job. 200 copies of a five page 11x17 document. That's 1000 11x17 pages for the multiplicationally burdened. And one of my intrepid cartographers is in Vegas because his friends have insanely expensive tastes. Earlier this year he went down to New Orleans (or Norlans to you locals) during Mardi Gras for a bachelor's party, and now he is in Vegas for another bachelor's party. He has still another bachelor's party in Vegas later this year as well. All the bachelor's in question live in Central Ohio, and I guess make boat loads more money than I do. The other intrepid cartographer is sitting in a cube next to mine plugging away on some maps for the Asshat, so that leaves print duty for the King. It is good to be King... hail to the King, Baby.

O'bligatory St. Patty's Day Blog, or the baring of my spleen

Top o'tha mornin to ya, and all that crap.

Every frikkin-body is Irish today. Yeah, sure whatever. I have an O'Zelinsky and an O'Vemupalli that I would love for you to meet, and someone named O'Shutthehellup. St. Patrick's Day has become a farce of its original meaning. It is now the drunken frat party equivalent of a holiday. Everybody will be drinking a pint of Guinness today and the marketing arm of the Irish stout will undoubtedly declare it to be "Brilliant!" On a side note: Why does Harp get no love? It is a good beer, but completely overshadowed by it's opaque cousin.

I went past a local pub on the way to work this morning. "Kegs and Eggs at 8 am. Happy St. Patrick's Day!" Huh? Kegs and Eggs? as a celebration? How odd, especially since it was not even an Irish pub. It was an English pub. ENGLISH!!!! The English hate the Irish for their lack of being in the United Kingdom, and they hate the Northern Irish for being associated with the "other" Irish. The Scots hate the Irish ("If it's not Scottish.... It's Crap!"). They consider the Irish to be a bunch of kilted wannabes. Oddly, my ancestry is predominantly Scotch-Irish (is that a kind of tape with alcohol in it?), so I am in a constant state of inner turmoil. As an aside, the Welsh are kinda on their own, as usual, making up words with 17 different consonants in them. Different group of folks there, with their odd language. Bunch of weird sheep-herding oddballs.

I mean when St. Patrick drove all the snakes (or as I like to call them druids and Gaelic aristocracy with serpentine rope work tattoos, or "snakes." You know potato: potato {mmm potato....}) out of Ireland, it was cause for celebration of Ireland's freedom from autonomy, right? Woo-hoo, let's get drunk!

I hate people

It is true, I hate people. I like individual persons, but people.... I hate, and I hate them with a passion.

People are rarely if ever good. When more than one person gets together and they become people, I hate them. Don't get me wrong, I hate some individuals as well, just not all of them. Some of you are probably wondering what exactly pushed this guy over the edge to tell us that he hates people today. Well, nothing. I have always hated people, and probably always will. Today I just did not have anything better to blog about. I am sure you people out there, and you know who you are, are wishing I had something better to write about today, but tough nuggies. I don't.

Now there are groups of persons that I do not hate. They typically can be grouped into some other unit. A team, a group, a circle of friends, etc... as long as they are not considered people. These groups don't even have to be ones that I consider myself a part of.

It takes people to do monumentally stupid things. Individuals can do stupid things but it takes people to get to the monumentally stupid stage. Apartheid, oh yeah.... that was people. Racism is a product of people as well. Sexism, heterosexism, agism, classism... Hell most of the "isms" aren't anything until people are involved. Wars depend on people to wage them, oppression needs a set of people to be oppressed and another set of people to oppress.

Even on a more intimate and trivially silly level... People cut me off when I am driving, people talk too loud on their cell phones, have conversations when I am trying to watch a movie in the theater, wear black socks with sandals (I'm looking at you, Old People), put cheese on everything known to be edible (I'm calling you out American chain restaurant cuisine), have spelling bees televised on sports channels, and on and on and on and on.............

Granted, I understand that people are made up of multiple individuals, but remember, as no one used to say to me when I was growing up, "None of us is as stupid as all of us together."

Obligatory "Beware the Ides of March!" Post

Caesar was an idiot. His dressing... not so bad, but the Pro-consul for life had some failings (other than epilepsy, which was not his fault).

Now, I say this on the condition that he was actually warned by the crazy old fool. Then again, we do not know if Caesar was getting wacked-out old people warning him about everyday either. I could very well see every time he went into public some crack-pot eldster calling out to him, "Beware the 5th of June!!!!!" While some other geezer shouted, "No, Great Caesar, beware April 10th!!!!" While some third old man shouted, "While you should be wary on April 10th and June 5th, might I suggest that you also be mildly trepidatious about February 30th. I see splinters in your near future."

Seeing how Caesar hates a good splintering, you can see why he shortened the month of February to 29 Days. Octavian took the other day and gave it to August. So much is clearer now.

Maybe the old man warning him about the Ides of March was wearing a sandal on his head, and we all know what that means.... I know I would never go outside if I listened to all the crazy coots shouting out days to “beware.” If I had a nickel for every time some insane octogenarian warned me about a particular day…. Rich I tell you, Rich!!!


Update: little one watch

He seems to be doing well, we are just worried since his immune system seems to be taxed at the moment and so much other crud is going around. I hear it all gets better right around the time when a small one turns 2. Everyone with kids here continues to tell me that a whole bunch of illnesses stop around 2. That doesn’t explain why my wife is sick though…

One heckuva Weekend

Okay, so my "weekend" started with getting sick Wednesday evening. Thursday was an experience in "evacuation." Luckily the little one who was still sick was at our child care person’s. All I had to do was sleep, recuperate, and "evacuate."

So here comes Friday...I was feeling much better. I was not hungry yet, but I was feeling fine. The little one, however, was taking a turn for the worse. He was coughing a whole helluva lot, not able to get comfortable, generally not in a good mood. It was happily my Papa Day. Since I typically work 4 x 10's Fridays are usually my wonderful day with my boy. March 11th was not a fun Papa Day. Turns out we eventually had to go to get a chest x-ray for the little one. He had/has pneumonia. Luckily (and this is an odd statement to say the least) it seems to be bacterial pneumonia. He is responding very well to anti-biotics.

Unfortunately, he also has been on rather heavy doses of steroids as well (Orapred anyone?) so he has not been able to sleep very well. Yesterday was the last day of the Orapred, so last night, we are hoping, was the last night of "steroid sleep." "Steroid sleep" is a state of sleep where the individual is not really at a complete state of rest. Kind of constantly in a light sleep where any and all noises/movements/thoughts/ideas can and will wake a person up. Little man woke up this morning at around 6:00am and couldn't get back to sleep. We are hoping that this changes. Coupled with the lack of ability to sleep is an insatiable thirst. He drank all night long. His diapers in the mornings have been rather heavy and near the point of total saturation. He seems to go from a stone dry diaper to a gushing sponge of disintegrating mush within a 30 minute span. I am sure that this is ever so comfortable for him.

So last night he was having difficulty getting to sleep due to his severe constipation. My wife assures me that constipation is no longer a problem, in fact if she were to name a city after him, today it would be Old El Paso.

So now we are back to the daily grind. At least we hope.

It is a Wednesday

How's that for a title? "It is a Wednesday." Has kind of an indisputable air to it. No one can really refute this assertion, for, it is, in fact a Wednesday. Reminds me of the Ralley's slogan "You gotta eat." Quite possible the most non-commital slogan ever.

Here are some other slogans that would be akin to the Ralley's motto.

Delta: "We own planes."
Price Phister Faucets: "Water comes out here."
Mead Paper Products: "Hey, you can write on this stuff, or print on this stuff as well, if you want."
Texas: "It's a state!"
Dollar Store: "Crap for a Buck!"
3M: "MMM"
Johnsons & Johnsons: "Bathroom Crap"
Beef: "You eat it."
Eggs: "From a chicken's ass to your plate... with a smile."
Pork: "It's not beef, chicken, or fish."
Cirque Du Soleil: "Where else are you going to see French acrobats?"
Heinz: "Ketchup"

Anyway... The little one is doing better, but I do not think that he is out of the woods just yet. That being said, one of my co-workers mentioned that my boy sure does make a bee-line for the woods when he sees them. I am not sure what it is about the woods that makes him run for them and linger within them for so long. Oh well, he is not out of the woods yet, but he is working on it.

Oh well.... off to work for me

Not thinking correctly

I am completely out of it today. My head is quite the foggy mess due to my amazing lack of sleep from last night. The little one is sick still, and the flu-ish thing seems to be marching onwards as something asthmatic. That is par for the course at the moment. It has been at least 2 months since we were at the E.R., so at least we got that going for us....

I typically try to stay a-political on this here blog, but...

This current bankruptcy legislation that is about to go through is absolutely hogshit. Okay, so if I understand this correctly, the credit card companies and other creditors would like to make the process of declaring bankruptcy more difficult due to the massive amounts of money that they are hemorrhaging by people defaulting. This legislation, if enacted, would cause the process of declaring bankruptcy to drag on for possibly years and people who wanted to declare would have to go into individual arbitration hearings with each and every creditor that they currently owe money. I honestly do not have a problem with the idea of making people more fiscally responsible and making the process of declaring bankruptcy more ominous. My problem with this process is that the people crying the most for the reform are the ones who are lending to credit risks in the first place.

The creditors are crying foul that so many people are defaulting and they are losing money left and right, but aren't these same creditors the ones who are continually soliciting lines of credit to people with bad credit.

I know some people who are currently in a declared state of bankruptcy. That being said, these are good people who just over-extended themselves for a myriad of causes and reasons. Some of these reasons were self-inflicted and some were beyond their control. The decision to declare was a difficult and heart-breaking decision for all of the people who I know currently going through the process. It was not a decision that was made lightly or remotely easily. This declaration basically stated in a public forum and in a recorded manner that they were unable to be as responsible as they thought they could be. These people are still bombarded with "Got no credit? Got bad credit? No problem!" credit card offers from the very companies that are pushing hardest for the reform. I assume that most everyone who has declared bankruptcy is fairly similar to the people I know. I know there are people who are exceptions and are just bad people, who continually just waste money away. I think these companies need to realize that they are making poor decisions in their practice of lending to potential liabilities.

So, if they do make it more difficult to file for bankruptcy, they should also make it more difficult to lend money as well. Quid pro quo.

My little one is miserable

It seems that nasty bug that has been hitting everyone so hard has finally tagged my little one. He is just feeling horrible, but that is the way of things during flu and cold season.

But on to less personal matters....

My wife and her mom went to The Vagina Monologues over the weekend. Initially my wife asked me if I wanted to go to the play with her, but I decided that it would not really be a dramatic vehicle that I would appreciate. 8 monologues about women and their lives and times in association with their hoo-hahs is not really in my realm of interest. Not my cup of tea. I hear it ius a very affirming play for women to experience, and I would not wish to intrude upon that I would rather stay home and kill orcs in my online game, thank you very much.

Online gaming has revolutionized long distance friendships. It used to be that occasionally I would get the chance to chat with my friends who live out of state, but never more than one friend at a time. I know that three-way calling has existed for a very long time, but I was never able to really get into that. On 3-way calls people continually interrupted each other, and it was difficult to really follow conversations, at least for my weak mind. Anyway... now online games allow for friends separated by significant geographic distances to "meet" and "interact" with each other in a virtual setting. Honestly, we do much more interesting things online than we could ever do in real life. Drinking root beer at a local park while throwing a frizz-bee at 1 am (we were rebels, the root beer was IBC, the frizz-bee was Wam-o, and the park was nearly deserted) is not nearly as interesting as killing quilboars that have infringed on our tauren tribal lands. Damn Pigs!!!! we will kill you all!!!! Fridays are now my boys night in. I join some of my friends for some online gaming and attempt to save the virtual world. Boy, I am quite the geek.

Oh well, I have work to get to now.

Looming

Recently it has come to my attention that some might think that I did not take my employees' reviews seriously due to my ramblings on February 17th. I can completely see where someone might get that idea, but I do want to state that I did spend a good amount of time thinking about and filling out my reviews. I find the system within I must review to be tedious, laborious, asinine, and somewhat arbitrary, but I did take my time and seriously consider my answers and overall evaluations of my "staff." The system I was working within seems to be inherently flawed, but one uses the tools that are available. I hope that my "staff" realizes that I tried to be very impartial and analytical in my reviews, and that (within the current evaluation framework) I was as realistic and true as I could be.

Now my review with the employees is looming. In the next few weeks I will need to talk to them individually and go over why I graded them how I did. I am certain that they will not agree with all of my points, but I do think that they will agree with my overall review of their performance.

Currently, I am at work to make up for the time that I missed last week due to the scheduling snaffu with our kid's caregiver. Oh well, that happens. At least I am allowed to make up the time, and I do not have to use my already paltry amount of PTO. So I am here after-hours now to work on that graphic that was needed for the meeting a week and a half ago that depicts a lack of impacts. How's that for irony. Although I am fairly sure that there is a certain amount of necessity to the working at non-standard times to fulfill a non-standard request.

Back to the grind.

TGIF

How do you like my new counter?

I like it fine. Every once and a while I will come to my page to inflate my count, just to make myself feel better and more popular. Is that wrong? I hope not.

So, today I am neglecting some work that has to get done for a Public Involvement meeting that is planning to be held last week.... Whaaaa?!?!? You read this correctly, I am doing a new 36"x44" poster for a public involvement meeting that has already taken place. To add to the foul taste in my mouth due to this revolting development, it is a poster that is intended to illustrate that there will be no impacts in an area. I ask you, the loyal reader, "How does one create a new graphic for a meeting that has already occurred to illustrate that nothing is happening?" I am as flabbergasted as you regarding this task. I am not exactly sure how to illustrate nothing one week ago.

On top of that, I am at work on Friday. As I mentioned yesterday, I typically work 4 10 hour days going from Monday through Thursday of every week, but due to some scheduling issues, I had to take Wednesday off and work today (and I quote...)... "Blecht."

So not only am I working on something that is intended to be shown to the public last week depicting nothing, I am doing this on the day I am usually watching my little one. Needless to say, I am not that inspired to really dig in and produce quality work at the moment. I will, mind you, but that is only because I am really persnickety about public involvement pieces.


Oh well, that is it from here

Enjoy your weekend's everyone.

Great... Now I have to work on Friday!!!

I have had the absolutely wonderful fortune of being able to work 4 10 hour days instead of the typical 5 8's. I usually stay home on Friday's so I can parent my little boy. That day home with him is wonderful. I truly feel blessed to be able to spend time on my own with the little man. He is quite the wonderful ball of joy, even though he has started down the road of tantrums. FYI: 18 months to 2 years is when those start to kick in, and he is in the thick of that timeframe. It turns out he really really really wanted that dirty spoon yesterday. Anyway... this is the best way that I can think of to end my week. It really helps me realign and get my priorities straightened. Work tends to set them out a whack, and by Friday, I need them by into whack. My wife works Tuesday through Friday and I work Monday through Thursday which only leaves 3 days that the little man needs to be in child care. So.... typically Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday he is in the care of a family friend who watches him for free.

This lady has been a family friend for years and years. She is a little bit older (in her 60's) and has quite an extensive collection of medical issues. The most pervasive and difficult of these medical issues centers around her Lupus. Now, I know what all of you are thinking, "Your childcare person is a werewolf?!? and you are okay with that?!?!?" The short answer is, "Yes." the long answer is, "Unfortunately, she is not a Lupine Lycanthrope, (that would be awesome, especially since she only watches him during the daytime, so no worries) she has a connective tissue disorder called Lupus.... description, description, description, memory loss, boring, boring, cognitive issues, boring, etc.... "

Anyway... due to complications brought about by her Lupus, she has had to have her right hip replaced. She got it replaced over the thanksgiving weekend in 2004. "Happy Thanksgiving! I am getting a metal hip." Yesterday was a check-up appointment for her, which she forgot to mention to us until Tuesday afternoon. Did I mention that some of the symptoms of Lupus were memory loss and cognitive difficulties? Now, I do not mind shifting the day I spend at home with the little one, but I like to have more than an evening to mentally prepare myself for the change in week structure. Anyway... due to this flub up we have decided to cut this family friend's wages in half. That will teach her.

Oh well, what can I do? So I was home yesterday watching the little one. Now I have to work on Friday.... Blecht

Winter Storm 05

It seems that Winter Storm '05 is not as virulent as they thought it would be. Granted weathermen/persons usually predict the worst so people can be prepared, but so far I have not seen it sleeting frozen cats and dogs like I was promised. I am sure Shih-Tzu’s and Abyssinians will be pelting my roof this evening because this storm ain't over (according to the weatherfolk). Oh wait a second, I have already ranted about the weatherpeople, haven't I?

Oh well, what to rant about today? Hmmmmm.....

Ooh, I know.... no, wait, I have ranted about that as well. Ummm, work, children's tv, Discovery Channel, family presents, employee evaluations, the south, Alabama, the Amish, Mennonites, Orapred, Garfield, the Asshat, ummm.... I am pretty much out of things to rant about for the moment. That can only mean bad things...

Number 1. (I do love me a numbered list) I need an outlet for my vitriolic bile laden sarcasm. It will only come out in destructive ways, hurting the people that are sitting closest to me. Not necessarily the ones I love, just those in close proximity to me. Consider proximity to me to be like the splash zone at Sea World or the tarp zone at a Gallagher show (Sledge-o-matic 2000, that is comedic genius. "Let's see what happens when I whack this watermelon with a maul. Look it explodes into a fine pink mist of watermelon." Talentless Hack!)

Number 2. A few people depend on my blog to make them laugh, and ranting tends to be one of my better ways of "getting my humor on." My other ways rely heavily on making fun of people sooooo... See Number 1.

Number 3. These few people depending on my blog to lighten their day, can sometime complain like wounded hyenas (although, I am just guessing on that one, they do complain, I am just not sure if it is the same as a wounded hyena. I imagine it depends on the type of wound that the hyena has sustained. Thorn in the paw or some other nagging injury would get a bunch of whines, whereas a mortal wound would be more huddled up in a heap whimpering softly. I do not see many of my devoted readership {all 2 of you [there may be more (there are not anymore parentheses, brackets, or braces to choose from)]} whimpering in a corner due to my lack of ranting.) It is amazing how whiney people can be about something that is free, and you know who you people are.

Number 4. Ummm.... I just thought my list should not stop with Number 3.

Oh well.... work calls